Yep, that is a Hot Wheels wheel on a Matchbox. How it happens I have no idea, but it happens. And it is one of those errors that are found once in a blue moon, but frequently enough to merit a mention.

Long-term collectors all have a story about one of these errors. Hunt long enough and you will come across one. I would not be surprised if this isn’t the first mixed-brand error Chuck has found.

I have come across two.

The first was an Open Speedster in a Matchbox 5-pack, with a rear Hot Wheels 10-spoke wheel, found at Kohl’s over the holidays several years ago:

While that was a pretty cool find, this one was the mind-blower:

Yep, a Hot Wheels large whitewall wheel on a Matchbox Olds Vista Cruiser. Found at a local Walmart around the same time. One of those “am I really looking at what I am looking at?” moments. The blister was cracked badly so I opened it.

Matchbox and Hot Wheels do share some factory space, so this can happen, but not a lot. It does make for nice little find when you do come across one. Some others:

Dang it. I know I’ve found one, too. I vaguely remember thinking to myself “this is neat” and packing it away. Now I’m going to have to go digging through box after box to find it to remind myself what car it is, because I’m obsessive like that. Thanks for nothing, John.

I haven’t found an error yet, particularly a country Golf one, but maybe I’ll get lucky this week. Dollar General in my area just put out a Hot Wheels/Matchbox display for the Buy One-Get One Free sale that starts tomorrow-but I already started this morning. I’m not waiting for the sales because they’ll be gone before then-got to stay one step ahead of the scalpers.

The “Marshall” is meant to refer to a location, not the word “marshal”, so that’s not an error, even though a lot of folks online think it is. Even if Matchbox screwed up and misspelled “marshal”, it’s not an error because they were all produced that way. Now, the Hot Wheels front wheel is most certainly an epic error…the lettering not so much.

Well ben it was certainly an error on the spelling because matchbox corrected the spelling on the next release and noted that they did spell it wrong. Fyi. No biggie either way, I bought it for the wheel error.